US National Guard

The National Guard of the United States is a part of the reserves component of the US Army and the US Air Force, founded in 1903 and upgraded to become dual state-federal reserve forces in 1933. The National Guard is the spiritual successor of England's colonial government militias, which were established on 13 December 1636, and a national guard in New York state national guard was established in 1824 to commemorate the Marquis de Lafayette, an American Revolutionary War hero and the founder of the French National Guard. The National Guard consists of 54 organizations, including the state guards of the 50 states, and units from Guam, the US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Washington DC. The majority of National Guardsmen and Guardswomen are part-time soldiers, mostly holding civilian jobs in addition to serving in the Guard. In 2012, the National Guard had a strength of 461,796 troops, with California (23,387), Texas (22,543), Pennsylvania (19,537), New York (16,297), and Ohio (16,152) being the top five states in terms of National Guard membership.